Electronic devices for motor vehicles generally include electronic components mounted on a printed circuit board. Some electronic components are components producing heat. They may be microcontrollers the data processing speed of which is such that the microcontroller heats up when operating, or again by way of example, they may be electronic components distributing high electrical currents to the equipment of the vehicle, or again simply conductive tracks carrying high currents across the printed circuit board.
In order to cool these components to prevent them from failing, it is known to dissipate the heat thereof by direct thermal coupling of these components to a thermally conductive casing of the device. The casing is generally equipped on its external surface with cooling fins.
During active cooling of the fins, a plurality of fans is frequently used in order to be able to cool all of the fins. For their part the cooling fins are either made in one piece with the casing or form part of a heatsink screwed or fixed by a thermally conductive adhesive to the casing. This type of cooling is subject to a heavy weight constraint and a non-optimum thermal efficiency.